2 GUNMEN RAID HOME FOR DRUGS, GET PARROT

The two gunmen who barged into a northeast section home and tied up three occupants said they wanted the drugs that the police were going to seize on Thursday.

But there weren't any drugs, so the gunmen instead made off with personal property and a live Amazon parrot.

Narcotics unit detectives said they had no plans for a drug raid at the house in the 5100 block of Northeast 18th Avenue.

And Mark Ungerbuehler, who rents the house with another one of the victims, said everyone is still wondering what the break-in was all about.

"I guess somebody got their wires crossed and we're paying the price," he said Thursday.

Ungerbuehler's roommate, Todd Steggerda, 21, was also inside the house during the attack, along with guests Angela Parks, 25, of Bath, Maine, and David Crawford, 24, of Fort Lauderdale.

No one was injured in the attack, which occurred when Parks answered a knock at the door about 10 p.m. Wednesday and was greeted by a man who shoved a gun in her stomach, police said.

The two gunmen then forced the startled occupants onto the floor and tied up everyone but Crawford. The suspects said they knew he didn't live in the house and he was not robbed, according to police.

One of the intruders put a towel over Ungerbuehler's eyes, placed a handgun against his head and threatened his life.

"'Move and you're dead. If someone knocks on the door you're going to hell,"' Ungerbuehler recalled the gunman saying. "It was pretty scary, I'll tell you. It's not something that happens every day."

Unable to find the apparently nonexistent drugs, the intruders took about $230 in cash and change, video equipment, a movie camera, several rings, a BB gun and Ungerbuehler's $700 parrot.

Ungerbuehler said the bird didn't make a sound when the robbers snatched it from its cage and fled.

The all-green, eight-month-old bird hasn't yet grown the yellow spot on the back of its neck that is typical of Amazon yellow-naped parrots. He is trained to say phrases like, "Good morning, Mark," and Ungerbuehler said he will miss him more than the other stolen property.